


The Customer Is Always Right

by emolee96



Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Schönberg/Boublil, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Basically a convenience store AU, F/M, Gen, I Don't Even Know, I'm Sorry Victor Hugo, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-30
Updated: 2013-07-30
Packaged: 2017-12-21 23:01:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/905987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emolee96/pseuds/emolee96
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Les Amis all work in a convenience store while fighting for social justice and attempting to put themselves through college. Inspired by this tumblr post: http://re-repeatblr.tumblr.com/post/56517188013/modern-au-headcanon-for-cosette-instead-of</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Customer Is Always Right

"You're training the new girl today, Enj, she comes in at four," Combeferre told Enjolras as soon as he walked into the store.

"What's her name?" Enjolras asked.

"Cosette. She's very nice, I think she'll be good with the customers," Combeferre gave him a pointed look. Enjolras, while a very hard worker, was very impatient and terrible at hiding his emotions. This occasionally caused problems with the customers. 

"Marius is training the new photo tech today too," Combeferre continued, "His name's Grantaire. So it's going to be kind of crowded up front. Once Cosette feels comfortable, you can work on restocking some of the aisles close to the front, but do me a favor and stay within earshot, okay? Javert’s coming in tomorrow, so I need to make sure everything's good in the office."

"Tomorrow? I thought that was supposed to be next week1"

"Change of plans," Combeferre rolled his eyes, "But get up front, it's 3 o'clock now, and Éponine needs to pick Gavroche up from school."

Enjolras walked up to the front of the store, greeting the other employees as he went. Courfeyrac and Jehan were shelving the new shipment in aisle 19 (Courfeyrac's favorite aisle, mainly because he enjoyed saying "I love oral" and laughing at the expressions on customers' faces when they overheard. Aisle 19 was home to mouthwash and toothpaste. Therefore "oral care." Therefore "I love oral."). Jehan and Courfeyrac working in the same aisle, however, meant that they spent the whole shift talking while Bahorel and Feuilly did the rest of the work themselves. (Aisle 19, while easy to joke about, was also conveniently out of the view of every security camera in the store, so unless a manager walked by, you couldn't really be caught slacking off.)

"Hey, Enjy," Éponine said cheerfully when she saw him, "How's it going?"

"The usual," he laughed. They had the same conversation every day. "You?"

"Same old, same old," she grinned, "New photo guy's cute, though, I saw him last week when he came in for his interview," she whispered conspiratorially, "Just so you know."

"Oh, shush, you," Enjolras shook his head. "Don't you have a little brother to pick up?"

"Indeed I do," Éponine threw her purse over her shoulder. "See you tomorrow!" she called as she walked out the door.

Enjolras loved Éponine, really, he did, he'd known her since they were in kindergarten, but sometimes he felt like they knew each other a little bit too well. Éponine had been trying to get him to go out with someone for a few years, and she was always saying that he needed more of a social life. Enjolras, of course, countered with the fact that they couldn't really participate in any kind of social activity unless it was also Gavroche-appropriate, and Éponine couldn't really argue with that. He thought about this and laughed quietly to himself before moving to help a customer and waiting for the next forty-five minutes to pass and Cosette to arrive.

She walked in the door five minutes early, just as they were always instructed to do, but never actually did, and waved at him. "Hello!" she said cheerfully, "I'm Cosette. I'm new, obviously. And you are?"

"Enjolras. I'll be training you, if Combeferre ever gets out here to give you your numbers so you can sign on to a register.

Combeferre, who had walked up and gone into the office a few minutes before, stuck his head out of the door. "I'll be out in a second, stop complaining, you!" he said to Enjolras, "And hello, Cosette, lovely to see you again."

She waved at him before the office door slammed shut again. "You and Combeferre seem to get along well," she observed.

"We've known each other since we were kids, we're practically like brothers," Enjolras told her, "Family friends and all that. I wasn't 'cool enough' for him until I started high school, though." (This wasn't technically true. Even though he was a few years older than Enjolras, Combeferre enjoyed his company and made it a point to spend time with him whenever possible when they were kids. It made for a funnier story the way Enjolras told it, though, so neither of them complained.)

"I see," Cosette nodded. "That's quite a long time."

"It is. Oh my God, what is taking so long?" he marched over to the office and knocked on the door. Loudly. (As we've established, Enjolras was rubbish at hiding his emotions. This made him a dynamic speaker, but an awful cashier.)

"God, you are so impatient. What is it now?" Combeferre asked. He was trying to look annoyed, but couldn't help a hint of a smile creeping onto his face.

"We need Cosette's numbers. Also the new guy Marius is training is officially" he checked his watch, "Seven, nope, make that eight minutes late, and there is a lot of injustice in the world. Also, the coupon thing's out of paper again."

Combeferre shook his head and handed Enjolras a slip of paper. "Those are for Cosette. New photo guy's been in the back for ten minutes. Joly caught him and is currently explaining the dangers of the chemicals used in the lab, and the various ways they could result in the death of everyone in the store. Which isn't likely to ever happen unless someone mixes them all together," he said, more to Cosette than Enjolras, because they'd heard Joly's speech countless times before, "But he is here. Marius is with him. And we'll deal with all the injustice in the world on Saturday over cheeseburgers and terrible coffee."

"I won't bother you again, then," Enjolras said, and Combeferre shut the door in his face in reply.

"Well, then, now that we have that settled, here's how things work up here," Enjolras proceeded to show Cosette how to use the register, where the hidden stash of Oreos was, you know, all the important things in life.

"So dealing with everything up here is pretty easy as long as you're nice to the customers," Enjolras heard Marius say, his voice sounding like it was getting closer and closer to the front of the store. "And the one guy up there, the angry curly blonde one, you can't miss him, he's a little scary at first, but he's nice once you get past the infatuation with politics and stuff... Oh, hey, Enjolras," Marius didn't see Cosette at first (Grantaire certainly didn't either, because Enjolras was standing right there flowering at both of them and he was pretty sure he hadn't seen anyone look so beautiful yet so incredibly ticked off in his entire life) but Cosette saw Marius, and she walked right up to him.

"My name is Cosette," she told him, "I snore and I steal the blankets, I really like Thai food, my dad is kind of scary at first and I know a really great diner that serves excellent chocolate chip banana pancakes." With that, she grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the store before he could protest (presumably about abandoning their shifts or something.)

When Enjolras realized that this meant he'd definitely have to stay at the register for five more hours, he was mad, but then he remembered the ridiculous expression on Marius' face when he saw Cosette (like he wanted to sob and shout for joy and kiss her all at the same time, while also being vaguely terrified) he was a little bit less annoyed. But only a little bit.

"Well, that was interesting," the dark-haired man who had followed Marius up front said. (He was wearing the standard-issue polo, so Enjolras assumed he was the new photo tech.) "I'm Grantaire, by the way." Enjolras was right. "And what's your name, 'angry curly blonde one?'"

Enjolras rolled his eyes. "I'm Enjolras."

"Hmm," Grantaire tried pronouncing it a few times, with no success, "I'm going to call you Apollo," he said after a moment, "Much easier to pronounce." He stepped behind the counter. "I suppose I'll just ring, then, since Pontmercy has disappeared."

"What's this I hear about disappearing?" Combeferre asked as he walked out of the office, a thick black binder tucked under his arm. He looked around. "Wait a second. Where's Cosette?"

"Off to get chocolate chip banana pancakes with Marius, I'm guessing," Grantaire said. 

"Is that some kind of terrible innuendo? I really don't have time for jokes right now, Grantaire," Combeferre sighed.

"She and Marius just left. He looked slightly terrified." Enjolras supplied helpfully.

Combeferre pushed his hair back. (Puff levels were high, Enjolras observed. He was stressed.) "Right, well, I'll try to call one of them. Grantaire, stay up here in the meantime, Enjolras will need all the help he can get. And Enjolras?"

"Yes, 'Ferre?"

"Be nice to the customers for me, please."

Enjolras just stared at him until he walked back into the office.

"Well, then," Grantaire said, more to himself than to Enjolras, "I guess I'll be staying up here." 

Enjolras didn't respond, because as much as he loved speaking to crowds of people, actually holding a conversation with someone was not one of his strong points. That was why he had Courfeyrac. Plus, there was something about Grantaire that he couldn't quite place, and it made him seem a little bit different than everyone else. Good different, though, definitely good different. But Enjolras couldn't think about that right now, because he had a job to concentrate on. 

"So, Apollo, tell me about yourself," Grantaire said after a few minutes of awkward silence.

Enjolras turned to look at him. "I just graduated high school. Combeferre's my best friend even though he's five years older than me. Courfeyrac comes in a close second, he's tied with Éponine. We all lived on the same street, and 'Ferre's mom was good friends with mine."

"Was?" Grantaire took a sip of his water and leaned against the counter.

"My mom died last summer," Enjolras said simply.

"Oh, man, that's terrible, I'm really sorry," Grantaire said.

"Don't be, it wasn't your fault. But anyway, I'm going to community college in the fall, we can't afford anywhere else, with medical bills and all, and 'Ferre and Courf and I run a kind of activist group out of the burger place down the street and also the coffee shop next door, depending on the day and how hungry we are," Enjolras cocked his head and looked at Grantaire. "What about you?" he asked curiously. ( _He looks like a puppy,_ Grantaire thought, but he didn't say it, because he had a feeling Enjolras would hurt him.)

"Oh, I don't believe in anything," he shrugged and brushed a stray curl out of his face. "Well, that sounds too poetic. Plus, it's not technically true. I just don't think little people like us can change big things about the world, you know?"

“Do you believe in anything?” Enjolras looked interested, and a little bit concerned, and Grantaire couldn’t decide if it was because he genuinely cared, or because he wanted to argue.

“I mean, I believe in art, I guess, and that it has the power to help people, and music too, for that matter. But as for changing the world and all that jazz, I’m not convinced.

“I’d ask why, but it would probably make me angry, and I have to deal with people, so that’s probably not the best idea,” Enjolras said, just as Combeferre stuck his head out of the office again. (Really, Enjolras didn’t know how he was getting any work done; he seemed to be talking to them constantly.)

“Enjolras, what’s the number one rule around here?” he asked. He looked like he was trying to hide a smile. Or he had a funny way of glaring. Grantaire didn’t know him well enough to be sure, but either was likely.

“The customer is always right,” Enjolras sighed, and they all got back to work.

**Author's Note:**

> Well I hope you all liked it, the next chapter is in the works, but it might take a little while, I've got a lot of stuff to work on with school and all starting up soon. You can visit me on tumblr at rainbowrunes.


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